Worksafe Victoria Applies New Dangerous Goods Regulations

The Victorian State Government’s new Dangerous Goods (Transport by Road or Rail) Regulations 2018 (DG TRR Regulations) which make minor yet necessary changes to the rules is now in effect (25th October, 2018.)

Victorian law now reflects the changes made to dangerous goods handling regulations over road and rail made by the Federal Government in recent months.

According to WorkSafe, the Victorian workplace health and safety authority, the changes maintain Victoria’s overall commitment to high safety standards, and “also deliver significant savings to Victorian businesses by reducing regulatory burden for the transport of lower risk dangerous goods by removing duplicate compliance requirements for explosive component transport.”

Owners of a dangerous goods vehicle requiring a licence will see a reduction in new and renewal costs, dropping from $60 to $14.20, or 0.98 fee units.

However, new fees will apply for driver licence applications, renewal, design packaging approvals, and administrative determinations or approvals, varying in fee units. For example, a bulk tanker design packaging approval will now cost 57.10 fee units, or $825.10. The costs will be indexed annually from 1 July 2019.

Industry groups, responding to a call for comments, expressed a need for fee units instead of fixed fees as was the case previously.

Other administrative changes include the re-wording or replacement of previous definitions, such as “rail vehicle” and “road vehicle.”

WorkSafe prepared the proposed Dangerous Goods (Transport by Road or Rail) Regulations 2018 (proposed Regulations), in consultation with the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Council. Deloitte Access Economics (DAE) prepared an associated Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) in consultation with the Office of the Commissioner of Better Regulation. Industry groups were invited to comment on the proposed legislation and RIS between 26 June and 23 July 2018.